Fantasy sports auction system

ABSTRACT

A fantasy sports game for a plurality of participants representing sports teams each wishing to form a fantasy sports team made up of actual athletes, and each operating a participant terminal operable to act as a client on a network, the system comprising: a host controller, the host controller comprising a computer operable to act as a server on the network and to communicate with the participant terminals over the network; and data storage accessible to the host controller.

DISCUSSION OF RELATED ART

[0001] Fantasy sports is one of the fastest growing and most populargames in the United States today. Fantasy sports allows people theopportunity to experiment and explore the management and coaching aspectof professional spectator sports. Fantasy teams are based on real-lifeathletes on real-life teams and have seasons similar to real-lifesports.

[0002] Fantasy sports is a simulation game where sports fans act asmanagers of simulated sports teams called “fantasy teams”. Thus, a“manager,” “user,” or “participant” interchangeably refers to naturalperson participants in the fantasy sport. An “athlete” refers to a realworld natural person professional athlete or the parallel world fantasyathlete character that represents him or her. One or more users can forma fantasy sports league which consists of several teams which aremanaged by the individual league participants. These league participantsreceive the authority and responsibility for the management of asimulated sports team. Fantasy teams compete against each other in aseries of games. Fantasy athletes are not natural persons like sportsfans, but rather a collection of statistics and data often derived fromthe historical statistics of actual athletes.

[0003] The outcome of games is highly dependent on the composition offantasy athletes in a fantasy league because different fantasy athleteshave different statistics that contribute to varying degrees of successin games. The outcome of a game is a calculation based on actual athletestatistics during actual games.

[0004] A fantasy league consists of a number of users that create andmanage teams based on a pool of athletes¹. For example, in a 12-teamfantasy football league, NFL football athletes are distributed among the12 teams in the league. Each team might be required to “start” onequarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, and a kicker (i.e.the “starters” are those athletes whose performance for a given weekwill contribute to the team's point total). Additionally, the team mayhave six extra athletes on their “bench,” extra athletes to act asback-ups for the usual starters when they are injured or during theiroff-weeks. The seven starters and six back-ups make up a total of 13roster spots on the team. Each roster spot might be filled by athletesfrom different NFL teams.

[0005] At the outset of the season, the league members¹ agree upon apoint system in order to measure the value of each athlete. Based on theathletes' weekly performance in professional football games, the valuesof the athletes are tallied to see which team member has the highestscoring team. Throughout the season, league participants¹ may try toimprove their team by trading athletes to other participants or byadding and dropping athletes from the available pool of NFL athletes.Although football is used as an example throughout this document, theFantasy Sports Auctioneer can be used for any fantasy sport—baseball,basketball, golf, NASCAR, hockey, etc.

[0006] Fantasy athlete statistics and related data are often storedand/or viewed on some kind of terminal (like a computer or a cell phone)connected to a network like the Internet. This network allows diversesports fans from around the world to meet and participate in leagues.Many fantasy sports websites have already been established over the lastfew years to facilitate the game and/or provide the research necessaryto play it. Some examples of these websites are:

[0007] http://fantasysports.yahoo.com

[0008] http://games.espn.go.com

[0009] http://www.fanball.com

[0010] The current systems lack certain interactive functions and can beimproved. The first two websites listed above do not offer anauction-based method of distributing athletes (only “snake draft,” whichis discussed below). The last website on the list offers anauction-based method of distributing athletes, but uses a very differentprocess than the Fantasy Sports Auctioneer System (e.g. among otherdifferences, its users bid on athletes that are nominated for auction inrandom order determined by its host controller). Other auction systemsdo not occur in real time. Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 6,371,855 byGavriloff Apr. 16, 2002. It shows a Fantasy Internet sports game whereteams starting with a number of game value units associated with eachathlete varies in correlation with the demand of the participants forthat athlete and a participant receives periodically a value-basedreward correlated to the value and/or performance of the athletes on aparticipant's team.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011]FIG. 1 shows an online auction screen

[0012]FIG. 2 shows a league team display

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0013] Definitions

[0014] User: a natural person participant or one or more natural personsacting as a single user, or a computerized user in the fantasy game.These persons do not play sports and are not athletes.

[0015] Fantasy athlete: a collection of statistics and data oftenderived from the historical statistics of real natural person athleteswho play sports. These persons are professional athletes and so areusually somewhat famous. Athletes are also called players.

[0016] Fantasy team: a collection of fantasy athletes managed by a user.

[0017] Fantasy league: a collection of users and their fantasy teamsalong with a set of rules regulating the management, scheduling, andscoring of competitions between fantasy teams.

[0018] Fantasy sports: a game consisting of one more fantasy leagues.

[0019] The present invention relates to an electronic system ofauctioning athletes by nominated auction in a fantasy sports league.Various users access a central server through a network such as theInternet protocol via remote personal computers. The system ispreferably embodied as a software application operating on a centralserver allowing a diverse variety of fantasy sports websites tointegrate with the Fantasy Sports Auctioneer System to give its usersthe option of using the nominated auction method.

[0020] The fantasy league begins with an athlete distribution method. Afirst method of prior art is called the “snake draft.” In a “snakedraft”, fantasy team selection order is first randomly determined. Inorder of the randomized list, each team then takes turns selecting anathlete to be added to their fantasy team. To make it as fair aspossible, the randomized team order is inverted every other round, toallow the team with the last pick of the current round the first pick ofthe next round. The first method is more easily implemented on theInternet as the central server determines priority for athlete selectionorder and then allows teams to choose athletes based upon the teampriority.

[0021] A second method is by nominated auction. Team order is firstrandomized and then snaked or inverted every other round as in the“snake draft.” Instead of choosing an athlete to be added to a user'steam, the user nominates an athlete for auction and places an openingbid for the athlete. Other users (i.e. the managers of the other teamsin the league) may then outbid the nominating team and bidding for theathlete begins as each team interested in acquiring the athlete mayenter successively higher bids. Each team begins with the same presetimaginary budget (also referred to in this document as a “salary cap”)representing fantasy money or game value units that are spent on biddingfor athletes. The highest bid wins the athlete and the amount of thewinning bid is subtracted from the team's budget (therefore, a usercannot enter a bid that is higher than his or her remaining budget).This process continues until each team has a full roster. If an auctionparticipant fills his or her roster, he or she is finished with theauction, regardless of whether they have spent all the allotted salarycap money.

[0022] The second method is preferably implemented by a softwareapplication operating on a central server. This allows a diverse varietyof fantasy sports websites to integrate with the auctioneer softwareapplication to give their users a variety of athlete distributionoptions including the nominated auction method. Currently, almost allfantasy sports websites only offer the “snake draft” method becausethere is no real, efficient, and electronic version of the traditionalprocess of the “auction method,” something that the present invention,the Fantasy Sports Auctioneer System, will provide.

[0023] A. Fantasy Sports Auctioneer System

[0024] The software application implementing the second method ofnominated auction has various parts. The first part is the FantasySports Auctioneer. The Fantasy Sports Auctioneer operates as an auctionhouse to facilitate traditional auction rules. The Fantasy SportsAuctioneer is designed to facilitate the auction method of distributingathletes.

[0025] B. Screen Components

[0026]FIG. 1 shows a large screen shot showing the preferred embodiment.

[0027] In FIG. 1, the Online Auction screen is divided into four parts:the “On the block” portion (110), the “Player Selection” portion (165)where athletes are selected to be put on the auction block, the user's“Team Display” portion (130), and the “Auction Order” portion (135).Currently, the athlete listed under the display name of current athletebeing auctioned (110) is “Ahman Green”, showing that he is the athletebeing auctioned. The manager who is selecting a team of athletes candecide either to submit a bid for the athlete (115) or to pass (120). Ifevery other user presses the Pass button, the highest bidder wins theathlete automatically, regardless of whether the delay time is finished.Below the box for inputting a bid, the bidding history window (145) isdisplayed, showing the bids of various teams and the current highestbid. The chat box (155) is displayed below the bidding history box (145)showing the comments of the various auction participants to the currentbids. The “Say” box (155) allows the auction participants to enter theirresponses into the chat box.

[0028] The “Player Selection” portion (165) shows athletes listed byname and categorized by their position. Users can highlight athletesfrom the list and click on the “Select Athlete” button in order to putan athlete on the auction block (165). In this example, the NFL athletesare listed by their position, real-life professional NFL team name, andthe week of NFL play in which they have a bye and therefore beunavailable. For instance, the highlighted player in the list-box isBrett Favre, who is listed as a quarterback (QB) from Green Bay thatwill have a bye in the eighth week of NFL play (165). It is important tonote that the information displayed in the columns of this list boxdepend on the fantasy sport for which the auctioneer is being used. Forexample, for fantasy baseball or basketball, “bye weeks” would notapply, so it would not be shown. Furthermore, the columns may depend onthe particular fantasy sports website using the Auctioneer. Wesites canselect for themselves what data will be shown as pertaining to what theyfeel is important for their users to decide on which athletes to beplaced on the auction block. An example of this might be that a fantasysports website could add a column with their recommended value of allthe available athletes.

[0029] The previously selected athletes are shown in lighter lettering(grayed-out) than those awaiting auction (165) and cannot be selected.Underneath the athlete list is a button for either “Alphabetize” or“Pre-ranked List” options (160) of sorting the athletes. If the list isalready in alphabetical order, the button would be labeled “Pre-rankedList.” If the list is already in order of the pre-ranked list, thebutton would be labeled “Alphabetize.” The pre-ranked list would bepredetermined by the host controller (i.e. the Fantasy Sports Auctioneeror the website integrating with it).

[0030] The user's “Team Display” portion (130) lists the athletes theuser has won in previous rounds of bidding. The user shown isrepresented by a team named the “Boston Big Heads” (130). The teamdisplay lists the athletes on the user's roster along with theirposition, the actual team of which they are a part, their bye week(again, the data in these columns will depend on the fantasy sport), andtheir “salary,” i.e. the winning bid for each athlete (130). Spaces forunfilled positions are also listed. Below the team display box is the“Salary cap” info (170) that informs the user how much money remains forauctioning and the “total (170),” which is the amount the user has spentso far in auctioning for athletes. (Mathematically speaking, “salarycap”+“total amount”=the preset budget for the fantasy league which inFIG. 1 is $100.)

[0031] The “Auction Order” Portion (135) lists the order in which thevarious teams represented by different users will be allowed to selectan athlete to be placed on the auction block (using the aforementioned“Athlete Selection” portion of the screen). To the right of the auctionorder list are phrases indicating who has the current pick, indicated bythe word “Pick,” the next pick, indicated by the words “On deck,” andthe pick after that, indicated by the words “In the hole (180).” Belowthe Auction order list is an option that allows the user to “show allteams” (140), the result of which is shown in FIG. 2. This commandallows the user to see the same information shown in the user's teamdisplay for all the teams. This allows the user to see what positionshave been filled for each of his or her competitors, as well as how muchsalary cap money he or she has left. Below the “Show All Teams” buttonis the “Change Delay” button (175). This button allows one of the leagueparticipants (e.g. the league commissioner) to change the differenttiming mechanisms that are in the Fantasy Sports Auctioneer System. Whenit is time for an auction participant to select an athlete to beauctioned, for example, he or she is only given a certain amount of timeto do so. Additionally, during the bidding process, there is a timingmechanism that measures how much idle time goes by before the athletebeing auctioned is won by the highest bidder (this is explained morethoroughly below). The amount of time given for both these functions arepredetermined by the host controller. The “Change Delay” button,however, allows one of the league participants to change this timemid-auction.

[0032] 1. Athlete Player Selection Area

[0033] This section of the screen is where an athlete is nominated forauction. This area consists of a “Position” drop-down box, a “SelectPlayer” button, and a list-box populated by athletes' names.

[0034] The “Position” drop-down box will be used to sort the list ofathletes' names by position. For example, if the Auctioneer is beingused for a Fantasy Football League, the “Position” drop-down box mightbe populated with values such as “Quarterback,” “Running Back,” “WideReceiver,” “Tight End,” “Kicker,” etc. By selecting “Running Back” inthe drop-down box, the list-box of athletes' names will only bepopulated by those athletes playing the position of running back in theNFL. This will aid the participant in choosing an athlete to be placedon the auction block. This “Position” drop-down box will obviously befilled by different values for different fantasy sports.

[0035] The list-box containing athletes' names will have a highlight toshow which athlete is currently selected. The user can move thehighlight up and down by using whichever tool the terminal provides(e.g. either a keyboard or mouse for a personal computer, the keypad fora cell phone, etc.). To put an athlete on the auction block, the userhighlights an athlete's name and then presses the “Select Player”button. The athletes who have already been auctioned will be grayed outand thus unavailable to be auctioned again.

[0036] The “Select Player” button is inaccessible (i.e. grayed-out) toan auction participant until it is his or her turn to select an athleteto be auctioned (as indicated in the “Auction Order” portion of thescreen). It is inaccessible to everyone during the actual biddingprocess, when there is already an athlete on the auction block.

[0037] The user will have the option to sort this list-box inalphabetical order or in order of a pre-ranked list (whichever systemthat integrates with the Fantasy Sports Auctioneer will have the optionto set this pre-ranked list). Furthermore, information about the athletemay be added or subtracted to this list-box, depending on what thesystems integrating with the Fantasy Sports Auctioneer feel is importantto display. For example, the athletes' team, position, or bye week(especially for football) might be added to further aid the participantin selecting an athlete. As mentioned previously, the user selecting anathlete to be auctioned only has a certain amount of time to do so. Somekind of visual cue will be given as to how much time he or she has leftor an Artificial Intelligence will select an athlete for the user (seeArtificial Intelligence Selection Process below).

[0038] 2. Bidding and Chat Area

[0039] Once a participant selects an athlete to be auctioned, he or shemust enter an opening bid. This can be done in the bidding area. Afterselecting an athlete from the Player Selection Area, the athlete's nameappears in the bidding area under the “On the block:” label. Underneaththe athlete's name is a “Bid” textbox where the user can enter theopening bid (only zero or positive whole numbers less than the remainingsalary cap would be allowed to be entered). Upon pressing the “SubmitBid” button, the participant's team name will appear in the biddingtextbox along with the submitted bid. This information is broadcasted toall the league members so that they will all see the athlete to beauctioned and the opening bid. At this point, bidding ensues byparticipants entering their desired bid into their own “Bid” textbox. Inorder to enter a successful bid, the bidder must enter a bid that isgreater than the current bid and less than or equal to what is allowedby the bidder's remaining budget.

[0040] Based on the auction's set bid delay time, a visual cue is givento show how much time is left before an athlete is sold to the highestbidder. In the example in FIG. 1, the delay time (set by a leagueparticipant acting as commissioner or by the fantasy website integratedwith the Auctioneer) is divided by three, and the result is the amountof time before the messages “Going once!”, then “Going twice!”, andfinally, “Sold!” are displayed. A series of periods (“.”) will be shownfor each second of idle time. If no one is outbidding the highest bid ona current athlete, and 12 seconds of a 15-second set delay time havepassed, the following will be displayed: “. . . Going once! . . . Goingtwice! . . . ”—12 periods interspersed with the “Going once!” and “Goingtwice!” messages. In reality, whatever system (e.g. a fantasy sportswebsite) that chooses to integrate with the Auctioneer can use adifferent visual display such as a simple count-down timer.

[0041] To expedite the bidding process, the auction participants canpass on a given athlete by pressing the “Pass” button. If all auctionparticipants press the “Pass” button, the highest bidder wins theathlete regardless of whether the delay time has finished. Once thebidding goes higher than a particular user's salary cap allows, thesystem will automatically press the “Pass” button for him or her. Thecommissioner of the league will also be able to change the delay timemid-auction, in case the league feels that more or less time is neededto run the auction (as mentioned above in the description of the “ChangeDelay” button). Additionally, there is a chat area where people can typein comments to each other.

[0042] C. Team Display Area

[0043] The team area is where an auction participant can view whichathletes he or she has already won in previous rounds of bidding, aswell as the team's remaining salary cap space. The list-box displayingthe athletes will be organized to reflect the league's rosterrequirements, which includes a starting lineup and a number of “bench”spots (i.e. back-ups). In FIG. 1, the starting lineup requirements are:one quarterback (QB), two running backs (RB), three wide receivers (WR),one tight end (TE), one kicker (K), one defensive lineman (DL), onedefensive back (DB), and five bench spots (B).

[0044] D. League Team Display

[0045]FIG. 2 depicts another screen showing a team's display box that isaccessed by clicking on the “Show All Teams” button (140) shown inFIG. 1. In the top left corner of the display is the league name whichin this case is the “Pi Kapp A league” (210). This team's display screenallows the user to view the athletes selected by the other leagueparticipants in order of what is seen in the “Auction Order” portion ofFIG. 1. Additionally, the system (e.g. fantasy sports website) using theAuctioneer may choose to attach (e.g. hyper-link) data to each of thegiven athletes' names to provide research information about theindividual athletes (260). This aids auction participants in determiningwhether to place an athlete on the auction block or whether to bid acertain amount on an athlete. Each column in the team's display boxlists the team name above the athlete information section (220) andbelow has divided sections (240) that provide information regarding theposition, name, real-life team, bye week, salary of each selectedathlete (270), and/or whatever else information the host controllerfeels is pertinent to display. Below all this information, additionaldata is provided regarding the salary cap (the remaining money allowedfor auctioning) and the “Total,” the amount of money the user hasalready spent (250), just as shown in the “Team Display” portion inFIG. 1. The same information described above is shown for the twelvedifferent teams that make up, in this case, the Pi Kapp A League (230).

[0046] Additionally, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program may replacea user when an extra user is required but unavailable. The artificialintelligence program may also temporarily take the place of a user whena user is away from a terminal. If there is more than one required butunavailable user, multiple instances of the system's AI will manifestitself to control the player selection and bidding process for eachmissing user. For example, if there are three missing human auctionparticipants, three different instances of the Artificial Intelligenceprogram will be run to handle player selection and bidding strategiesfor each of the missing human participants. Additionally, when a userhas run out of time to select a player to be auctioned, the built-inAI's athlete “Selection Algorithm” (see below) will be run to select aplayer to be auctioned for him or her. Artificial intelligence programsare widely known in the software industry, and a variety of artificialintelligence routines may be purchased commercially.

[0047] Many different algorithms can be designed to control the AI ofthe Fantasy Sports Auctioneer. The AI will generally consist of twoalgorithms:

[0048] 1) a “Selection Algorithm” that will determine which athletes toplace on the auction block when it is the AI's turn to do so, and

[0049] 2) a “Bidding Algorithm” that will determine up to how much theAI will bid on a given athlete that is currently being auctioned. The AIwill generally use a “price list” preset by the host controller as abasis for both algorithms. This “price list” is a list of all theavailable athletes to be auctioned with a corresponding unit value thatwill also be preset by the host controller.

[0050] The following “Conditions and Appropriate Actions” describepossible examples of a “Selection Algorithm” and a “Bidding Algorithm.”

[0051] Conditions and Appropriate Actions for a Possible AI “SelectionAlgorithm”:

[0052] The Selection Algorithm would run when it is the AI's turn toselect an athlete to be placed on auction. The algorithm breaks downinto two decisions: which position (e.g. quarterback, running back,etc.) and which athlete to place on the auction block. Condition 2 belowdescribes the strategy behind which position to elect for auction. Oncethe AI has decided upon a particular position, it simply chooses thehighest ranked player still available on the price list (this isdescribed at the very bottom of the Selection Algorithm description):

[0053] Condition 1: The AI's full roster is already completely filled,

[0054] Action 1: The AI will discontinue entirely from the auctionprocess.

[0055] Action 2: Give selection control to whomever is next on thePlayer Selection list (either human or another AI auction participant).

[0056] Action 3: End Selection Algorithm

[0057] Condition 2: The AI's roster is not yet full,

[0058] Condition 2.1: There is more than one starting position yet to befilled,

[0059] Action 1: Randomly select one of these unfilled startingpositions.

[0060] Condition 2.2: There is only one starting position yet to befilled,

[0061] Action 1: Select this one position.

[0062] Condition 2.3: All the starting positions are already filled,

[0063] Action 1: Find the position with the least number of back-ups onthe bench.

[0064] Condition 2.3.1: There is only one such position,

[0065] Action 1: Select this one position.

[0066] Condition 2.3.2: There is more than one position with the leastnumber of back-ups (e.g. the AI has yet to purchase a back-up for eitherthe starting quarterback or the starting running back),

[0067] Action 1: Find the position with the most number of requiredstarters. Take, for example, a league that requires one startingquarterback, one starting running back, and two starting wide receivers.If the AI has yet to buy any back-ups for any of the starting athletes,it would select a wide receiver because it requires two starterscompared to one quarterback and one running back.

[0068] Condition 2.3.2.1: There is only one such position,

[0069] Action 1: Select this one position.

[0070] Condition 2.3.2.2: There is more than one such position (in theprevious example, if there were already one back-up wide receiver, butno back-up quarterback or running back),

[0071] Action 1: Randomly select one of these positions.

[0072] For All Subconditions of Condition 2:

[0073] Action 2: For the position selected above, select the mostexpensive athlete still available on the “price list” for the randomlyselected position.

[0074] Action 3: Enter an opening bid of the league's preset minimum bid(e.g. zero dollars).

[0075] Action 4: End Selection Algorithm.

[0076] Conditions and Appropriate Actions for a Possible AI “BiddingAlgorithm”:

[0077] Condition 1: The current player placed on the auction block is ofa position for which the AI has yet to buy a starter (e.g. a quarterbackis placed on the auction block and the AI has yet to buy aquarterbacks),

[0078] Action 1: The AI will multiply the suggested price on the “pricelist” for this particular athlete with a randomly selected numberbetween 0.5 and 1.5 (e.g. 0.92345 or 1.3762).

[0079] Condition 2: The current player placed on the auction block is ofa position for which the AI already has bought all the requiredstarters, but not any back-ups.

[0080] Action 1: The AI will multiply the suggested price on the “pricelist” for this particular athlete with a randomly selected numberbetween 0 and 1.0 (e.g. 0.3342 or 0.9237).

[0081] Condition 3: The current player placed on the auction block is ofa position for which the AI already has bought all the required startersand one back-up.

[0082] Action 1: The AI will multiply the suggested price on the “pricelist” for this particular athlete with a randomly selected numberbetween 0 and 0.5 (e.g. 0.0342 or 0.3237).

[0083] For Conditions 1 through 3:

[0084] Action 2: The AI will round the result of the multiplication doneabove to the nearest whole number.

[0085] Action 3: The AI will then use this whole number as the maximumamount that it will bid for the athlete currently on the auction block.

[0086] Action 4: The AI will continue bidding the lowest possibleincrement (e.g. $1) above any bids of either human or other AI auctionparticipants up to this maximum bid).

[0087] Condition A: A human or another AI auction participant outbidsthis max bid

[0088] Action 1: Press the “Pass” button.

[0089] Action 2: End Bidding Algorithm.

[0090] Condition B: The AI wins the player

[0091] Action 1: Add the athlete to the AI's roster.

[0092] Action 2: Subtract the winning bid from the AI's salary cap.

[0093] Action 3: End Bidding Algorithm.

[0094] Condition 4: The current player on the auction block is of aposition for which the AI already has bought all the required startersand two back-ups,

[0095] Action 1: Press the “Pass” button.

[0096] Action 2: End Bidding Algorithm.

[0097] If the maximum bid calculated above is greater than however muchthe AI has left on its remaining budget, it can obviously only bid up towhat is left on the AI's budget. Also, the number of back-ups up towhich the AI will continue bidding (two back-ups in the example above)should be adjusted to the sport and the number of possible bench spotsin whatever league is formed. The “adjusting multiplication” done above(i.e. the randomly generated numbers) should also be adjusted based onthese factors.

[0098] It is important to note once again that the ArtificialIntelligence described above can be used for any fantasy sport (eventhough football was used as an example). Furthermore, the ArtificialIntelligence described above can be made to be more sophisticated basedon certain sport and league settings. The aforementioned description isonly to give an idea of how a possible AI routine may be designed.

[0099] Artificial Intelligence programs may replace a user temporarilyfor bidding with the user and assigning values for nominating athletesand values for the maximum bid that a user is willing to spend onbidding for fantasy athletes. Artificial Intelligence programs may alsobid randomly for fantasy athletes or bid based upon a set value of afantasy athlete calculated from historical statistical data.

[0100] The foregoing describes the preferred embodiments of theinvention and modifications may be made without departing from thespirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.

[0101] Call Out List

[0102]110 Display name of current athlete being auctioned

[0103]115 Location for entering bids allowing input of desired bid bypressing the “Submit” button.

[0104]120 Pass Button.

[0105]125 Position dropdown box will filter the Athlete Selectionlist-box by selected position.

[0106]130 User's Team display sport contextual fantasy website andleague's line-up requirements.

[0107]135 Randomized athlete selection order

[0108]140 “Show All Teams” button brings up all of the team displays

[0109]145 Bidding history window shows who has bid what and whocurrently has the highest bid

[0110]150 Visual cue to show how much delay time is left over before theathlete is sold

[0111]155 Chat functionality allows auction participants to comment onthe auction

[0112]160 Alphabetize/Pre-ranked List buttons give two athlete list-boxsorting options

[0113]165 Highlight an athlete and press “Select Athlete” button toauction him or her off.

[0114]170 Displays how much money has been spent and how much salary capspace is left

[0115]175 “Change Delay” button allows league commissioner to changeauction delay time

[0116]180 Indicates who has the current pick, the next pick, and thepick after that.

[0117]210 League name will be displayed here

[0118]220 Names of each team will be displayed.

[0119]230 All team displays are based on the league's starting lineupand bench requirements

[0120]240 Based on the sport as well as user input, different data canbe shown here.

[0121]250 Display money user spent and salary cap remaining.

[0122]260 All displays of athlete names, including list-box, under “Onthe Block” label, or in the “Team Display” areas of both FIGS. 1 and 2may be hyper-linked to provide research information.

[0123]270 The amount of money spent on each athlete is shown in thesalary column

1. A system for managing a fantasy sports game for a plurality ofparticipants representing sports teams each wishing to form a fantasysports team made up of actual athletes, and each operating a participantterminal operable to act as a client on a network, the systemcomprising: a host controller, the host controller comprising a computeroperable to act as a server on the network and to communicate with theparticipant terminals over the network; and data storage accessible tothe host controller, the data storage storing information relating toperformance of the athletes in actual games, the host controller beingoperable: (a) to create a hierarchical order of teams to determinepriority in athlete nomination for auction, the hierarchical orderstarting from a first nominating team and ending with a last nominatingteam, the first nominating team exercising a first nomination and thelast nominating team exercising a last nomination, the hierarchicalorder repeating for nomination of remaining athletes after the lastnominating team exercises the last nomination, (b) to solicit and accepta request from the nominating team for nomination of an athlete forauction, (c) to display the nominated athlete for auction on allparticipant terminals, (d) to display on all participant terminals avisual indicator to show the beginning of a predetermined auction time,the passage of a predetermined auction time, and the end of apredetermined auction time, an initial value in predetermined auctiontime being previously set by the host controller, (e) to display on allparticipant terminals a visual indicator to show the beginning of apredetermined athlete selection time, the passage of a predeterminedathlete selection time, and the end of a predetermined athlete selectiontime, an initial value in predetermined athlete selection time beingpreviously set by the host controller, (f) to solicit, accept anddisplay successively higher participant bids during the predeterminedauction time, (g) to determine and display the winning team of theathlete auction and assign the winning team the purchase of the athletefrom no more than a predetermined number of game value units initiallyallocated by the host controller, an initial value in game value unitsfor each athlete being previously set by the host controller; and (h) atabulation means for assigning a team score proportional to data storagerelating to actual performance of the athletes on the participant'steam, (i) responsive to a request of a participant, to access the datastorage and report a status of the participant's fantasy team, thestatus including information as to actual performance of the athletes onthe participant's team.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein the hostcontroller is operable: to display on participant terminals a teamregistry of athletes showing athlete composition of all participants'fantasy sports teams.
 3. The system of claim 1 wherein the hostcontroller is operable: to display on participant terminals, thehierarchical team order for nomination of athletes.
 4. The system ofclaim 1 wherein the initial value in predetermined auction delay time isvaried by the host controller and can be lengthened or shortened forlater rounds of bidding.
 5. The system of claim 1 wherein the initialvalue in predetermined athlete selection delay time is varied by thehost controller and can be lengthened or shortened for later rounds ofbidding.
 6. The system of claim 1 wherein the host controller varies theinitial value in predetermined auction time from auction to auction. 7.The system of claim 1 further including a means for displaying privatemessages sent by users to each other, and further including a means fordisplaying public messages sent to the entire group.
 8. The system ofclaim 1 further including a chat function.
 9. The system of claim 1wherein the host controller is operable: to accept a pass selection byparticipant team that can elect to pass an athlete and discontinuebidding on the athlete, wherein the auction for the athlete terminatesupon the pass selection by all participants teams except for the highestbidding participant team who is awarded the purchase of the athlete atthe highest bid.
 10. The system of claim 1 further including a means toidentify participant teams by unique league names.
 11. The system ofclaim 1 wherein the host controller is operable: responsive to a requestof a participant team, to display an alphabetized or pre-ranked list ofathletes.
 12. The system of claim 1 wherein the host controller isoperable: responsive to a request of a participant team, to display abidding history for athletes.
 13. A method for managing a fantasy sportsgame for a plurality of participants representing sports teams eachforming a fantasy sports team made up of actual athletes, and eachoperating a participant computer terminal operable to act as a client ona computer network, the method comprising the steps of: configuring ahost controller, the host controller comprising a computer operable toact as a server on the network, configuring participant terminalscapable of communicating with the host controller over the network; andproviding a data storage accessible to the host controller, the datastorage storing information relating to performance of the athletes inactual games, the host controller being programmed to be operable: (a)to create a hierarchical order of teams to determine priority in athletenomination for auction, the hierarchical order starting from a firstnominating team and ending with a last nominating team, the firstnominating team exercising a first nomination and the last nominatingteam exercising a last nomination, the hierarchical order repeating inreverse for nomination of remaining athletes after the last nominatingteam exercises the last nomination, wherein after the last nominatingteam exercises the last nomination, the last nominating team becomes thefirst nominating team and the first nominating team becomes the lastnominating team, (b) to solicit and accept a request from the nominatingteam for nomination of an athlete for auction, (c) to display thenominated athlete for auction on all participant terminals, (d) todisplay on all participant terminals a visual indicator to show thebeginning of a predetermined auction time, the passage of apredetermined auction time, and the end of a predetermined auction time,an initial value in predetermined auction time being previously set bythe host controller, (e) to display on all participant terminals avisual indicator to show the beginning of a predetermined athleteselection time, the passage of a predetermined athlete selection time,and the end of a predetermined athlete selection time, an initial valuein predetermined athlete selection time being previously set by the hostcontroller, (f) to solicit, accept and display successively higherparticipant bids during the predetermined auction time, (g) to determineand display the winning team of the athlete auction and assign thewinning team the purchase of the athlete from no more than apredetermined number of game value units initially allocated by the hostcontroller; and (h) a tabulation means for assigning a team scoreproportional to data storage relating to actual performance of theathletes on the participant's team, (i) responsive to a request of aparticipant, to access the data storage and report a status of theparticipant's fantasy team, the status including information as toactual performance of the athletes on the participant's team.
 14. Themethod of claim 13 wherein the host controller is operable: to displayon participant terminals a team registry of athletes showing athletecomposition of all participants' fantasy sports teams.
 15. The method ofclaim 13 wherein the host controller is operable: to display onparticipant terminals, the hierarchical team order for nomination ofathletes.
 16. The method of claim 13 wherein the initial value inpredetermined auction time is varied by the host controller and possiblyshortened or lengthened for later rounds of bidding.
 17. The method ofclaim 13 wherein the host controller may vary the initial value inpredetermined auction time from auction to auction.
 18. The method ofclaim 13 wherein the host controller may vary the initial value inpredetermined athlete selection time from auction to auction.
 19. Themethod of claim 13 further including a means for displaying privatemessages sent by users to each other, and further including a means fordisplaying public messages sent to the entire group.
 20. The method ofclaim 13 further including an artificial intelligence program to replaceusers unable to participate during bidding, and
 21. The method of claim13 wherein the host controller is operable: to accept a pass selectionby participant team that can elect to pass an athlete and discontinuebidding on the athlete, wherein the auction for the athlete terminatesupon the pass selection by all participants teams except for the highestbidding participant team who is awarded the purchase of the athlete atthe highest bid.
 22. The method of claim 13 wherein the host controlleris operable: responsive to a request of a participant team, to display abidding history for athletes.